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Click here to view the original article.[US scientist Bob Black says, "We really don’t know what the effects are and whether it is an issue" when it comes to coal dust flying off train cars into wetlands on the way from the US to Westshore Terminals in Delta. So what do they do? Conduct objective scientific studies to find out what the impacts are. And how do we face such data gaps here in BC? Port Metro Vancouver just ships it anyway, while our provincial government seems all too happy slinking away murmuring 'not our jurisdiction.' Click here to do something about it. *RON*]
By Ashley Ahearn, KUOW.org, 94.9 FM, NPR, 17 September 2014

WASHOUGAL, Wash. -- Coal had been transported around the country by rail for decades before the recent push to bring it by train to ports in the Northwest.

And yet, scientists don't really know how much coal dust could escape from rail cars, how far it might travel, and what coal-borne mercury and other contaminants might do to aqu…

Council of Canadians invite Harper to get on the climate busSince Harper could miss UN climate summit, Council of Canadians and Ottawa residents offer to swing by 24 Sussex to pick him up en route to NYC Climate March

The government has been keeping lengthy records of nearly 800 public protests, rallies, and demonstrations since 2006, newly released documents show.

The events mentioned in the report included a series of peaceful vigils in Montreal for missing and murdered Aboriginal women, a Maritimes lobster fishermen protest, and a public Idle No More gathering in San Francisco.

Rathgeber, the Conservative turned independent MP for Edmonton—St. Albert’s, told a small gathering at his book launch Thursday in Ottawa that he feels Stephen Harper “Rathgebered” Chong’s Reform Act.

His “Rathgebered” comment was a reference to the fact the Prime Minister’s Office had tried to gut his own private member’s bill last year — a bill which called for the salary disclosure of highly paid public servants — without his approval.

Rathgeber said he could have gone along with Harper’s plan but instead chose to shelve a bad bill rather than see it pass. And h…

Click here to view the original article.[Burnaby-Douglas MP Kennedy Stewart wants to hear from other pipeline opponents who feel targeted. Are the RCMP the trained attack dogs of the corporatocracy? *RON*]

By Natalie Clancy, CBC News 18 September 2014
A 71-year-old B.C. grandmother was shocked to learn her recent research for an upcoming National Energy Board hearing triggered a national security investigation.

Lesslie Askin says that on Aug. 3, she photographed Kinder Morgan’s aging storage tanks at the base of Burnaby Mountain.

Ten days later, she learned she was a terror suspect.

"There's a knock on the door, and there are two RCMP officers at the door," she told CBC News. "The chap who asked all the questions [said he] was an investigator with the national security division."

Askin says she was taking the photographs for her presentation at the upcoming National Energy Board hearings into Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline.

Click here to view the original article.[Even after a protracted strike and tremendous economic and political pressure were put on both the union and the membership, one in seven would not vote "Yes" to this contract. It's a bad deal, and teachers will be working for less at the end of this contract than they are now - so far, this is all for one-half of a teacher more per school. "Affordability" is a myth - it is all a matter of priorities, and children's education is clearly not a priority for this government; as compared with, say, arena roofs or big raises for crown corporation heads (after all, we don't break employment agreements, right?). *RON*]By Tamsyn Burgmann and Dene Moore, The Canadian Press, Huffington Post, 19 September 2014

VANCOUVER - Half a million British Columbia students will start their school year next week after the province's strike-weary public school teachers ratified a hard-bargained contract, despite strong feelings the d…